


I guess I just like liking things

by jabedalien



Series: I Guess I Just Like Liking Things [1]
Category: Community (TV)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Complete, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Mutual Pining, Recreational Drug Use, Sharing a Bed, Tried to do a little of everyone's POV, Troy and Abed in the Morning, and that my quarantined self is living through her, but im bad at it, not my fault brittas a stoner
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-26
Updated: 2020-05-20
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:08:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 10,648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23858857
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jabedalien/pseuds/jabedalien
Summary: Just my quarantine contribution to celebrate community on netflix.Abed and Troy separately admit their feelings for each other to different members of the study group.
Relationships: Troy Barnes & Abed Nadir, Troy Barnes/Abed Nadir
Series: I Guess I Just Like Liking Things [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1859215
Comments: 69
Kudos: 421





	1. Conversations

**Author's Note:**

> Fair warning: i kind of did whatever i wanted with the timeline writing this. what you need to know is Troy Abed and Annie are in the apartment. Troy and Britta have never dated and I think they have a great dynamic as friends so I will ignore that them dating has ever been canon.
> 
> Dont expect too much from me as this is more plot than I have ever written (and there isn’t much plot). I also wanted to get into writing Jeff and Britta more because I never really have. I haven’t written fic in a long long time (like 20616) but I really want to grow as a writer so feedback is always appreciated. If anyone wants to beta read the upcoming chapters I’d love that. Second chapter is 90% done and I have some stuff for the third as well. Not sure if it'll go beyond that, depends on how long I'm locked in the house for.
> 
> The Sufjan Stevens reference is actually two references in one- Call me by your name and the fact that Donald Glover loves Sufjan.

Jeff walked into the blanket fort, where Abed was standing at the desk, flipping through stacks of scripts. He pulls one out and reads the title.

“Lawyering 101- pilot”

“That's the dumbest goddamn name I’ve ever heard” Jeff says, settling into a pile of pillows and taking the packet from Abed’s hand.

“You know I’m bad at names”

“First of all, this description doesn’t even sound like me” Jeff said, scanning through the pages.

“I already told you aren’t in the story. I just need a real fake lawyer to check it for accuracy” 

Jeff scoffed, but he kept reading. Every once in a while he had a correction, and Abed perched on the edge of his bed jotting it down in a black notebook. But overall, it was pretty good. When they’d gotten to the end Jeff got up and put it back on the desk. He spotted a script titled “Intro to Love” and picked it up. 

“Don’t read that.” Abed said sternly, and reached to grab it out of Jeff’s hands.

“Now I’m definitely reading it,” Jeff teased, yanking it out of Abed’s reach.

“If you really want to you can, but it’s a waste of time. Its garbage.”

“I’m not gonna waste this once in a lifetime opportunity to hear Abed Nadir’s take on love,” Jeff said, settling back into the pillows.

Abed relented and Jeff started to read, silently but more than aware of Abed’s eyes watching him. He was going to tell him off but as he read he pretty much stopped noticing it anyway. The story wasn’t bad at all, maybe a little sappy but considering to Abed’s usual emotionality (or lack thereof) it was a welcome change. He got to the end and looked up to see Abed still staring at him like a beige praying mantis. 

“Pretty good for a story about you and Troy,” Jeff said as he flipped it back to the cover.

“What gave it away?” Abed asked, looking more at the ground than Jeff.

“Well the one guy is an artist who has a hard time connecting with people,”

“But he’s white,”

“Because I’m sure the community college acting pool has plenty of half Arabic half Polish Muslims for you to choose from. Not to mention the second guy matches Troy perfectly.”

“Please don’t tell Troy. Or anyone really.”

“What? That you wrote a story about you and Troy that includes you making out on a balcony set to Sufjan Stevens music? I won’t but you gotta admit this is a little weird Abed, even for you.”

“You’re not wrong, plus I was never really planning on making it. But people say the best stories start with something real and I wanted to give it a try.”

“Well I prefer Lawyering 101.” 

Abed gave a nod of agreement.

“Have you talked to Troy about... any of this?” Jeff asked, still trying to wrap his head around what this was. In theory he knew Abed was a human just like the rest of them, but he didn’t exactly broadcast his feelings, and reading this felt like an intrusive step into Abed’s mind. He wasn’t surprised by the Troy part though. A little uncomfortable? Sure, but he couldn’t really imagine Abed with anyone else. 

“Not really. I'm still... trying to navigate that.” 

Something in the way he said it, stumbling over the words a bit, made Jeff care more than he’d ever admit. He’d also never admit he has a soft spot for Abed, but that’s true as well. 

“Listen Abed, I don’t want to push you, but you know you’ll have to talk to Troy eventually, right?” Jeff said, closing the distance between them and gently sitting next to Abed on the bottom bunk, bending a bit to fit. 

“I don’t think I’m a brave enough character to do that”

“I think— actually I know that you are, Abed. I’ve seen you do enough crazy shit to be sure of it. Take it from someone who runs from their emotions, if there’s someone out there who makes you want to write melodramatic love stories you should probably do everything you can to make it happen.” 

Abed nodded, it was short and silent but he looked somewhat reassured. They both stood up.

“Thanks for the speech Winger,” Abed said, looking up at Jeff with a small smile.

Against his better judgement, Jeff pulled the kid into a hug. 

“If you ever need anything, even just to talk, I’m here. Crazier shit has happened than this.” 

Abed smiled, and as Jeff walked to the door, he was surprised that he actually meant what he said.

...

Troy propped his feet up of Britta’s coffee table while she scoured her cluttered countertops. The whole place was kind of a mess, mostly furnished with stuff Britta had made her friends help her carry up four flights of stairs after she found it on the sidewalk. Plus it was absolutely crawling with rescued cats. The one-eyed cat liked Troy well enough though, gingerly approaching him and nestling under his arm as Britta screamed in victory at finally finding a lighter under a stack of tupperware containers. She sat on a stained armchair across from Troy and lit the blunt, taking a puff before passing it to Troy. He’d found himself enjoying Britta’s favorite vice from time to time. Smoking mellowed out Britta’s usually harsh personality, and Troy liked the way he could text Britta on a Saturday afternoon and press pause on the outside world. 

“Do you think Abed would ever smoke with us?” Troy asked when the blunt was halfway gone and Britta was making a half-assed attempt to tap the end of it over an ashtray she’d clearly never emptied. 

“I think Abed would shoot heroin if you were the one offering,” Britta said back, still mostly focused on her task. 

“Do you think he’d kiss me if I asked him to?” Troy wondered.

“What the hell are you talking about Troy? And I mean, probably,” she shrugged.

The realization that he really hadn’t meant to say that out loud hit Troy far too late. Even sober, his filter was pretty much nonexistent and getting high sure didn’t help.

“So do you like Abed?” Britta said, looking up at him in the way she did when she wanted to be someone’s therapist.

“Thats a stupid question Britta. Of course I like Abed, he’s my best friend,”

Britta relented and rephrased. “Well are you attracted to him?”

Troy thought about that question. He closed his eyes and imagined them that morning, brushing their teeth at the sink. Abed was about to shower, and had pajama pants on but no shirt. He had the same goofy smile on he always did when they brushed their teeth. Abed was lanky, all long limbs and ribs you could see through his skin when he stretched. Troy liked the way that even though Abed had a few inches on him, he definitely weighed less, which was probably a product of him living on like two bowls of buttered noodles a day and not much else, no matter what Annie tried to push on him. He looked almost delicate sometimes, like you’d break him if you weren’t careful. It made for a nice contrast between them, the aesthetically pleasing kind like between two love interests in a movie. Abed’s hair was a little long, he’d even told Troy a few days before that he needed to get it cut, but Troy liked the way it sat on his head, how it changed direction when Abed leaned towards the mirror and guided it with his hands. This led Troy to wondering how soft it was, and how it would feel if he ran his hands through it, preferably while Abed kissed him. He thought about Abed’s nimble hands and long, thin fingers, and how they’d feel on the back of his neck while they kissed. 

“Earth to Troy? Britta here!” 

Troy jumped back in his seat at Britta’s hand waving in front of his face. The cat shifted in protest. He looked around for the words to say. 

“Okay so maybe I am attracted to him?!" Troy shot back, his head in his hands.

Britta got up and sat next to Troy on the couch. She put an arm around his shoulders in a way she hoped wasn’t super awkward, and felt a little better when he leaned into her. 

“Sorry Britta,” Troy said, already sounding close to tears.

“There’s nothing to be sorry for,”

“There is though, isn’t there? I’m his best friend and me feeling this way about him is betraying that.”

“Troy you can’t control how you feel about people. It’s hard sometimes, but its just a part of being a human.” 

Troy relaxed a little bit and sat back. If he was going to have to talk this shit out with anyone in the group, Britta was probably the most open-minded option.

“I kind of dated a guy. In high school.” He blurted out before he could change his mind.

“Okay!” Britta said brightly, trying to inject some positivity. She raised an eyebrow and waited for Troy to continue. He felt kind of weird talking about it, and so much has changed that it seemed like a lifetime ago.

“Yeah for like, the whole summer and most of senior year. His name was Lee,” Troy started, “No one knew about us. Actually, a few of his friends might’ve but they never said anything. I’d had classes with him before, but we ended up talking at a party in the beginning of the summer. The cops got called and we ran off together. He kissed me while we were laying in a cornfield and at first I was more scared of it than getting an underage. But after that we started hanging out. Hooking up at first, but then we were just watching movies together. He had this secret spot in the forest by the park. Sometimes he would tell me he wanted to go there to draw the trees so I’d just sit with him and talk, and he only ever drew pictures of me. It was fun while it lasted, but it wasn’t gonna go forever and we knew it. He was going to NYU, and was so excited to come out and live his life for real. I couldn’t bear the thought of going to a dumb state school for football. And I wasn’t going to hold him back. He deserved better than to be my secret.” 

“Troy that was... unexpectedly kind of the sweetest thing ever. Does Abed know about any of it?”

“I never told him about Lee, no. We don’t talk about our pasts a lot. I don’t think Abed has a ton of great stuff to look back on, and I guess honestly neither do I.”

“That’s alright,” Britta said. “We’re all different from when we first met. Abed seems a lot happier now and I know that’s because of you,”

“Britta, don’t tell anyone I said this, but you actually might be a good therapist,”

She smiled, and Troy held back a laugh at exactly how red her eyes looked. 

“I’m hungry,” she said, “lets order pizza,”

Troy appreciated that Britta wasn’t going to push him any further. Not to mention he could really use some pizza. They were trying to find something to watch and all of a sudden Britta stopped scrolling and was talking super fast at him about color theory and symmetry and he just nodded along until she pressed play. 

The pizza came and Britta brought it to the table, humming some weird little song to herself that Troy decided not to mention and turned the movie on. Troy immediately got lost in a sea of weird costumes and mildly confusing dialogue. 

“What’s this called again Britta?”

“Moonrise Kingdom. It’s the cutest thing ever,”

Troy leaned back with his pizza and zoned into the movie. All he could think about was how much Abed would like it.

The movie ended and it was getting late, so Troy got up to go. 

“Troy let me know what happens with Abed, okay?” Britta said as he was leaving.

“Yeah I will. Thanks Britta,” he said, hugging her goodbye. He walked down to his car and started driving home, the whole time trying to figure out if Abed would notice he was acting different. He was so sure he’d pick up on it somehow and Troy didn’t think he was ready for that conversation. Abed had an uncanny way of seeing everything.  
The thoughts took him all the way to their front door, and he took a deep breath before unlocking the door and stepping inside. Abed was sitting on the couch with a bowl of buttered noodles.

“Have fun at Britta’s?” He asked, “What’d you guys do?”

Troy’s brain short circuited. 

“Uh we, smoked weed?” Troy said after walking over to the couch and sitting next to Abed, hoping he couldn’t sense his nervousness. 

“Nice,” Abed said with his small smile, either having already known or not really caring anyways.“anything else?”

“Actually yeah, we watched this movie, I’m sure you’ve seen it though, called moonshine kingdom or something like that? Seemed like you would like it,”

“Moonrise kingdom, I have seen it, and it is pretty great.” 

"Did Jeff come over to help you with that script?"

"Yeah, he left like an hour ago,"

"How'd that go?"

Abed looked at Troy for a beat, then just said "Good,". Troy left it at that.

They talked about the movie until Abed was done eating and they’d washed all the dishes together. Troy was starting to think that maybe he could just not say anything to Abed, stay best friends and never mention the way he couldn’t stop noticing Abed’s dark, studying eyes on him. He could quietly notice the way Abed's arms looked in his tshirt while he washed the dishes, or how the fabric of it clung to his chest where Troy had splashed him with soapy water.

The night came to an end and Troy was laying in his bed, counting the bars of Abed's bunk above him, still thinking about what he’d said to Britta until he finally drifted off to sleep.


	2. Nightmares and thrift stores

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is a weird frankenfic of the original first half of this chapter along with a one shot I wrote in the middle of the night on 4/20 because I REALLY miss thrifting. However, this has been edited somewhere other than my iphone notes app so we are making progress out here!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I reference blade a little in this but it doesnt matter if you havent seen it. However if you like marvel I really recommend watching at least the first one because it literally birthed the MCU.  
> I am hoping to make this like 4 chapters? And not abandon it because in the past I was a serial abandoner and I want to be different this time!

Abed was deep in sleep when he heard someone whispering his name. He blearily opened his eyes to see Troy’s face peering over the edge of the top bunk.  


“Abed, are you okay?!” Troy whispered frantically.  


“I’m fine Troy, what time is it?”  


“Like 3:30. I had a nightmare with this crazy old racist doctor who looked a lot like Pierce and he killed you so I wanted to make sure you were still alive in real life,”  


“Okay makes sense. I’m pretty sure I’m fine though,” Abed said, ready to go back to sleep but Troy hadn’t moved.  


“So...” Troy said, shrugging a little.  


“Do you want me to go down there and lay with you?”  


Abed watched the white of Troy’s sheepish grin flash in the darkness. “Would you please?”  


“Cool. Cool cool cool,” Abed whispered, climbing down the top bunk as quietly as he could (he knew Annie was a light sleeper) and laying on his back in Troy’s bed. Troy followed immediately, nestling himself in the space under Abed’s arm and laying his head on Abed’s chest.  


“Abed?”  


“Yeah Troy?”  


“I’m happy you’re alive. I was real nervous for a second there,” Troy said. Abed could only half hear him but he felt the words vibrating on his chest.  


“I’m happy too.”  


Abed didn’t know what else to say that wouldn’t ruin the moment. Instead he was wishing he could get a nice overhead shot of the two of them like this, one that showed how they fit together so cinematically. The lighting right now was damn near perfect as well. Troy had left one bulb on by the front door, which he always did to avoid complete darkness. Right now it was shining through the thin walls of the blanket fort, casting them in soft light and shadows. Everything was so perfectly framed that Wes Anderson would be jealous. All Abed needed was a thirty second clip, one he could play on a loop forever, staying in the silence and darkness and the dreamlike atmosphere that comes with being woken up in the middle of the night. Abed couldn’t really tell how long it had been, just that their breathing had reaching a kind of synchronicity and Troy hadn’t said anything else.  


Abed wasn’t quite sure when all of this started, just that it was before he realized he had feelings for Troy, and that changed not long too after. Usually he documented the exact moment any significant change in dynamic happened within the group, trying to find some kind of pattern or order to it all, and keeping track of all the current plot lines (and some old ones as well, for callback material). He knew how it had started, with Troy curling close to Abed on the couch so they could both use the good blanket when it was cold, or making his way to Abed for protection from particularly scary movies. A few times they’d fallen asleep on the couch like that, and neither of them ever really mentioned it in the morning. He just liked knowing that Troy found comfort in his presence, that he wasn’t afraid to ask Abed to hug him or hold his hands or cover his eyes when the creepy girl shows up in The Ring.

Abed knew Troy had nightmares, too, and sometimes him waking up from them shook the bunk bed enough to wake Abed up. He’d check on Troy, and then end up sleeping in his bed the rest of the night. Abed dreamt plenty, but he didn’t have many nightmares, and definitely not the kind Troy did. He never really cared about getting woken up when Troy had nightmares because he figured it was a lot better than having to experience them.  


He never really initiated any kind of touch between them aside from a handshake and the occasional hug. It wasn’t out of a lack of want, because there were plenty of times he couldn’t fall asleep and the top bunk was feeling kind of cold and lonely. He just wasn’t entirely sure how to go about it. Troy was an affectionate person with everyone, so it never seemed weird, no matter what he did. Abed was usually the passive receiver of affection, mostly from Annie or Britta or Shirley on occasion. Hell, even Jeff hugged him earlier. With the rest of them he was fine with this, he liked when Annie reached out to hold his hand or Britta fell asleep slumped against him on a long car ride, but he didn’t miss it when they weren’t there. With Troy it was different. After a long day they’d be watching tv together, their knees touching but not much else, and all Abed would want to do is lay his head in Troy’s lap and watch Cougar Town sideways.  


He stopped flashing back to admire the way Troy’s head gently rose and fell with his own breaths. It was a comforting weight on his chest, and he could feel Troy’s hands pressing against his side. From this angle Abed’s vision was mostly the top of Troy’s head and his body curled up against Abed. He carefully moved his left hand and ran his fingertips through Troy’s hair. Troy let out a quiet sigh and Abed pulled away, immediately regretting the move.  


He must have jumped more than he realized because Troy says, “Hey it’s alright Abed, that felt nice,”  


Abed puts his hand back and smiles up at the bunk above him, right where he would’ve placed the camera if he was filming this. He swears he can feel Troy smiling against his chest as well.  


…  


Troy absentmindedly starts walking his fingers along Abed’s ribcage while he basks in the calming energy of Abed’s hands in his hair. He isn’t really tired anymore, but there isn’t much to say, and he refuses to move out of what might be the most supremely comfortable position he’s ever been in. He can tell Abed had used the nice laundry detergent Annie bought, maybe even some of the fabric softener as well judging by how the worn-in cotton of the blue t-shirt feels against his cheek. Abed’s one hand is draped around Troy’s shoulders, the other gently working its way through his hair. Troy is so blissfully enveloped in everything Abed that he’s almost high off it. He figures that the fact that this feels so utterly good is probably a very bad thing.  


Honestly, Troy had always hated sleeping alone, but it was worse in the bunk bed. He’d toss and turn, then look up at the top bunk for signs he might’ve disturbed Abed. This only reminded him of the fact that he was alone and Abed was _right_ there. He only ever had nightmares when he slept alone, too. Sometimes he’d die in his dream, then his eyes would shoot open and he would catch his breath until he fell back asleep. The worst ones involved someone else dying, usually Abed. He’d spend the last few minutes of the dream trying to save him, but he never succeeded, and he'd wake up in a cold sweat with tears spilling out of his eyes. He always felt kind of bad when he heard rustling above him but Abed never seemed to mind when he leaned over the edge of the bed to check if Troy was awake. It was at this point that Troy would ask him to come down to his bed, which Abed always did.  


He wasn’t sure if it was because of his conversation with Britta, but tonight he woke up feeling worse than usual. In theory he knew Abed was totally fine, but he was so consumed by how vivid the dream had felt that he knew he’d never sleep if he didn’t check. Looking back on it now he was pretty happy he had woken Abed up. He’d nearly forgotten the bad dream entirely and judging by how Abed’s hand had fallen limp against his chest, he had already fallen back asleep.  


Before he knew it, Troy was sleeping too.  


…  


Abed woke up to Troy still curled under his arm. He could hear Annie making coffee outside. Most of the time Abed would be awake with Annie by now, sitting at the kitchen table with her. She would be updating her planner with everything she had to do, and Abed would watch her while he ate his cereal and played some mindless cartoon in the background. Troy usually got up much later than the two of them, rolling out of bed when Annie was already dressed and ready.  


He was a little scared Annie might come in there to see if he was awake, and he was hoping she wouldn’t because he wasn’t sure how he’d explain the position they were in. It was one thing for them to fall asleep on the couch together, but he knew the sight of them both crammed onto Troy’s twin mattress was probably more than she’d want to see, and would raise some questions Abed really didn’t want to answer.  


…  


Troy woke up, his neck hurting a little from the angle he had slept in, but otherwise well rested.  


“Dreams?” Abed asked when he realized Troy was awake.  


“None,”  


“That’s good,” Abed said.  


Troy shifted a little to look at the small smile on Abed’s face. They should probably get up, but he was so warm under the comforter and the outside air felt so cold that he was dreading it. Instead he just repositioned himself around Abed in hopes of a few more minutes there before they had to get up.  


“I’m sorry I woke you up in the middle of the night,” Troy said.  


“Don’t apologize, I really don’t mind,”  


“Are you guys awake?” Annie called from the kitchen, “It’s like 11:30,”  


“Seriously?” Troy said, “Okay we’re getting up now,”  


Troy detached himself from Abed and they both got up out of bed, though Troy probably would’ve been fine with them staying like that forever.  


…  


“Did you guys have any plans today?” Annie asked once they were dressed and sitting at the kitchen table.  


“Not really,” Abed said, “I have some stuff to edit but that can wait till tonight.”  


“I need some new clothes, so… thrifting?, thrifting?” she asked each of them.  


“Sounds good,” Troy said, “Perfect Sunday afternoon activity,” Abed nodded in agreement.  


“We should go to that big place by the mall, they usually have sales on Sundays,” Abed said.  


“You’re the expert so I’ll take your word for it!” Annie said brightly, getting up to grab her purse.  


Abed was uniquely versed in the merits of every thrift store within a thirty minute radius. He always seemed to know the best place to find that specific thing you were looking for, or when each place refreshed their stock, or which was cheapest on any given day.  


…  


Annie was sorting through the hangers of every top in her size meticulously, leaving no price tag unturned.  


“You’re never going to get through everything if you do it like that,” Troy said, gesturing to the rest of the racks crammed into the huge store.  


“You’re probably right,” Annie admitted.  


Abed walked up to them, his arms already full.  


“Abed how do you find shit so quickly?” Troy asked, holding up his singular sweatshirt.  


“Let’s be honest, Abed wears a slight variation of same thing every single day,” Annie said, still inspecting a pink button up sweater.  


“That I do. But you aren't allowed to judge me for it because right now you're wearing a pink sweater and about to buy a shockingly similar pink sweater." Annie looked down at herself then back at the hanger she was holding and laughed a little. "First, I get the cheapest graphic t-shirts I can possibly find, like paying over a dollar for them is a lot and I usually refuse to do it,” he said holding up a handful of tee shirts of various random patterns. “And then, I get some sweaters and sweatshirts to wear over them”, he showed them four more hangers, “then in the morning I just pick one of each out at random. So like, green cardigan and... dinosaur shirt. Plus I have a few pairs of pants.”  


“Is that why half the stuff you wear doesn’t match?” Annie asks.  


“Pretty much.”  


Troy’s jaw dropped. “Abed, you’re a genius.”  


“I also always shop for…” He pulled out a leather trench coat with a flourish, “costumes.”  


“Blade?” Troy asked.  


“Blade.” Abed nodded and freed his right hand so they could do their handshake.  


“All those kickboxing videos we watched on youtube are about to pay off,” Troy said excitedly, taking the jacket off the hanger and trying it on. It actually fit him pretty well. 

“The one thing I found is super nice though, just feel this softness!” Troy said, showing them his red nike sweatshirt and holding out the inside of it for them to touch.  


Annie obliged and ran her hand over the fabric and okay, it was super soft and she kind of wished she’d found it for herself.  


“Troy, this is really soft” she said, “and I love the color,”  


Abed felt it slowly, running his hand back and forth a few times.  


“Cool. Cool cool cool. I think I’m going to steal this from you,” Abed said.  


“Don’t even think about it, Abed,” Troy teased.  


They split up to make their way through the housewares section, which was nearly ten aisles of full shelves. Annie browsed through the kitchen section, picking up a few cute, mistmatching plates to replace the ones Troy and Abed had broken so they could, according to Abed, “Achieve genuine sound effects”. She found a few other things for the apartment as well, curtains for her bedroom, and a lamp for next to the couch, plus a few nice baking pans she’d give to Shirley.  


Abed was sifting through a huge stack of posters looking for movies he liked, a handful of DVDs already under his arm.  


Troy was mostly interested in sorting through shelves of toys, the majority of which were half broken or had pieces missing. Sometimes he’d go through the appliance section and open something up, move a few things around, solely based on his instincts, and plug it into an outlet to watch it whir back to life. He had just fixed a microwave and was watching it run when Abed spoke from over his shoulder.  


“Did our microwave break?” Abed asked, tilting his head.  


“No, it’s fine,” Troy said, “I just like going through this stuff and fixing it.”  


Abed kneeled next to him and they both watched the microwave plate spin.  


“Very, very cool. Do this next,” he said, grabbing a digital clock off the nearest shelf. He watched silently as Troy pulled the panel off the bottom, turned the batteries around, and hit a few buttons. They both watched as the red numbers blinked on.  


“It’s like you have superpowers,” Abed said, awestruck.  


“Kind of a lame superpower though,” Troy said, “I’d have to be called the Repairman or something like that and my outfit would probably be a pair of overalls and weapon would be really dumb, like a wrench,”  


“You’re a lot closer to a superhero than the rest of us, at least. If you could have any superpower what would it be?”  


“Super strength would be kind of fun, but I think flying would probably be better,” Troy answered, “What about you?”  


“Reading minds.” Abed said back immediately. He’d clearly thought this through before.  


Troy thought about all the stuff Abed would know if he could read his mind, and thought that maybe he was better off if his best friend wasn’t a superhero.  


Each of them ended up going home with a few bags of stuff. As soon as they got back Annie had them wash all the clothes, which she knew Troy and Abed definitely wouldn’t do unless she made them. She always did, because as much as she loved her thrifted clothes she couldn’t stand the idea of any of it being worn without being cleaned first.  


Annie went in her room to study, so it was Troy’s job to fold everything out of the dryer. Troy separated Annie’s skirts and sweaters from Abed’s t-shirts and left them on top of the dryer. He pulled the red sweatshirt over his head before returning to his spot on the couch next to Abed.  


“New sweatshirt,” Abed pointed with his finger.  


“You’ve got that right,” Troy said, smiling.  


Abed gingerly reached out to run his hands along Troy’s arm. Even the outside of the sweatshirt was soft. It was a bright, true red, and Abed liked the way it looked against Troy’s skin.  


“It’s still warm,” Abed said.  


“Like a cookie fresh out of the oven!” Troy exclaimed.  


Abed leaned into Troy and put his head on his chest. He hoped Troy wouldn’t pick up on how nervous he was or how fast his heart was beating. The warmth radiated against his cheek and Troy shifted a little, adjusting to make them both comfortable. The motion was reassuring, like a confirmation that Troy was quite fine with this.  


…  


Troy was pleasantly surprised by the way Abed had just placed himself in his arms. It was definitely not a usual Abed thing to do, and sometimes when Abed wasn’t acting like himself it made Troy worried, but he was pretty okay with this change. They didn’t say much else, just watched the rest of Blade, which they had only really put on in preparation for their Blade homage with the leather trench coat. Troy ran his fingers through Abed’s hair, and wondered what the hell he did to make it so silky. It was pitch black and shiny, and Troy found great joy in guiding it the way he so often watched Abed do in the mirror and watching it respond. He was still messing around with Abed’s hair when he recognized the final fight scene starting and went to say something to Abed, who he now realized was asleep.  


Annie walked out of her bedroom and went to say something, but when she made eye contact with Troy and opened her mouth, he put a finger to his lips and then pointed to Abed’s sleeping face against his chest.  


“Awee,” she half-whispered, “That’s adorable, he’s literally like a cat,”  


“A cat?”, Troy looked at her a little confused.  


She raised her voice a tiny bit to explain. “Y’know, like how cats are fine with people petting them and all, but they only curl up with people they really like,” Annie said.  


Troy thought of Britta’s one-eyed cat realized Annie was kind of right. He looked down at Abed and smiled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you all liked what may have been the longest, most gratuitous cuddling scene ever written followed by an even more gratuitous thrift store scene followed by more cuddling. I had a lot of fun with this one though so I hope you all like it. If anyone wants to beta read in the future I’d love that!  
> Also I am bestfriendsweekly on tumblr if you ever wanna talk community!  
> And thank you so so much for reading :)


	3. Silence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Quick warning as this one does get a little NSFW there for a second!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a few days and I'm not as in love with this update but I wanted to get some setup for the next chapter. Hoping I can make that one extra long and wrap this fic up real nice with it! I've had a great time writing this but I have lots of ideas for some fun one shots, especially annie/abed/troy because i love them all together!

“Hey Annie!” Britta’s voice called from behind her. She turned to see Britta speedwalking to her. She knocked shoulders with Garrett and ignored him while he scoffed at her. 

“Where are Troy and Abed?” Britta asked, as Annie opened her locker. “I figured they’d be here by now,”

“I’m not sure,” she said. “Britta, know that I’m asking you this as a friend and not a psych major, but has Abed seemed weird the past couple days?”

“Honestly, I just feel like I haven’t seen him,” Britta answered. She scanned through the week so far to consider it. She saw Abed at school last Friday, and smoked with Troy on Saturday but didn’t see Abed over the weekend, which wasn’t necessarily out of the ordinary. Then Monday they had class and study group, Abed was definitely next to her but she couldn’t recall him saying much. They ate lunch together most Tuesdays but he wasn’t there this week. He was at study group on Wednesday and she remembered noticing he was actually studying biology. Now it was Thursday, bio was about to start, and he wasn’t there. 

“I don’t know what it is but he’s been so quiet lately. We live in a tiny apartment together but all of a sudden, I hardly see him anymore. He’s been sitting on his bed with his laptop and headphones on for hours a day and I have no clue what he’s doing,”  


“I mean maybe he’s just working on a project, you know how Abed gets wrapped up in that kind of stuff,”  


“I guess but usually he tells me what he’s working on at least. He’s been going to class and study group but other than that he only leaves his room to eat. He hasn’t really been talking to Troy either and I can tell he isn’t taking it well,”  


“Oh, fuck.” Britta said, suddenly putting together the timeline and remembering her conversation with Troy.  


“What?!”  


“Uh, nothing?” Britta said, trying to play it off but knowing she was already in too deep. Annie was a master interrogator and there was no point trying to get out of it now.  


“Britta now you’re making me nervous, if you know something just tell me,” She said, closing her locker with a bang.  


“Well the other day when Troy came over to smoke—”  


“You’re a terrible influence,” Annie interjected.  


“Let me finish! He may or may not have told me that he has a crush on Abed and I may or may not have told him to talk to Abed about it.”  


“Holy shit Britta seriously?!”  


“Yeah I was pretty surprised, but then I realized it did make a lot of sense,”  


Annie nodded in agreement. “I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do about this,” she said, already itching at the stress rash forming on her neck. “I mean they share a room right next to me, I can’t just ignore all this. What do you think happened?”  


“I asked Troy to let me know when he talked to Abed but if he hasn’t and things are weird now it must’ve not gone well. God I wonder what happened that made Abed hide away for this long,”  


“I can’t even imagine,” Annie said. “How about this: if things don’t seem any better by tomorrow afternoon, we can call an emergency study group meeting and figure it out,”  


“Like an—” Britta started.  


“Do not call this an intervention Britta,”  


“Well it seems like one to me!” She shot back.  


“Okay maybe a little bit,” Annie digressed. “We’ve got to go though, class is about to start,”  


…  


Abed was mindlessly organizing his video clips into file folders for what was probably the 20th time this week. He’d been holed up with his laptop since Monday morning and had run out of stuff to actually be doing by Tuesday afternoon. He’d done all his homework with much more attention to detail than he usually offered it and all of his comfort episodes of Inspector Spacetime had way too much of the Inspector and Reggie to do anything but make him feel worse. He pulled the covers all the way up to his nose and willed himself to disappear under them forever.  


“Hey Abed,” Troy called softly from the ground. Abed took one earbud out and moved just enough to see the worried look on Troy’s face. “We have biology in like half an hour so we should probably get going,”  


“I’m not feeling well,” Abed said, pulling the comforter up impossibly farther.  


“Okay well, I know that’s a lie but I’ll take notes for you anyway. Call me if you need me, okay?” Troy said, turning and leaving the blanket fort without saying anything else.  
Abed knew that a lot of the time Troy blamed himself for his bad days. Abed never told him that before he met Troy and the rest of the study group most of his days were bad ones. Days when Abed’s dad would be screaming at him for an hour before he’d get up to go to school, where he would sit in silence during class and roam the halls alone during lunch. He’d go work at the falafel stand and not say anything there either, even when customers looked at him funny. Then at night he'd take all his anger and frustration and hatred for the world out on himself, staying up until five in the morning wishing he could be someone, anyone else.

Looking back he was pretty ashamed of the person he was before he’d met the study group. He had a few nice teachers who showed concern for a kid that aced the tests but didn’t show up to class half the time and didn’t say anything when he did. They’d ask him to stay for a few minutes after class just to see how he was doing, and he’d push them away until they gave up. There were plenty of mean kids, sure, but there were nice ones too, ones that invited him to sit with them at lunch or tried to make conversation with him during class, and he never put an effort in with any of them. He’d spent his whole life thinking that if he couldn’t fit in there was no point in interacting with people at all. But when he started college he wanted to be different. By some miracle he found the study group and realized that there were people out there who didn’t fit in either. Maybe not for the same reasons, but misfits nonetheless.  


Somehow, one stupid dream had sent the life Abed had just finally gotten used to spiraling. He was even more ashamed by the fact that even though he’d dreamt it on Sunday night, every detail was still burned into his mind, probably permanently.  


It started out so mundane Abed almost didn’t even know he was dreaming at all. They were playing crocodiles versus riverboat gamblers in the dreamatorium. At first, they were rowing along, kneeling on the mattress they’d dragged in from Troy’s bed to be the boat. Suddenly the dream took an outlandish turn, the way they sometimes do, and Troy was on top of Abed and pulling his shirt off. In the moment it had all seemed so automatic, the way he lifted his arms so Troy could pull the shirt over his head, the feeling of Troy’s hands exploring his bare chest. He gripped onto the hem of Troy’s shirt and pulled it off him. Then they were kissing, and Troy’s hands were pulling on his hair, and it hurt in the most amazing possible way. Abed bit Troy’s lip enough to make him moan and ran his tongue along Troy’s perfect white teeth. Dream Troy unbuttoned Abed’s pants in an instant and threw them aside. Abed returned the favor, revealing Troy’s dark, muscular thighs. Troy had taken his underwear off and Abed was staring at his dick, awestruck and unable to choose exactly what he wanted to do next.  


It was at this moment that Abed had opened his eyes and realized it was all one big, fucked-up dream. The worst part of it was that he was still curled up against Troy’s chest and wrapped in his arms. He felt like his dream had seeped out of his brain into real life and contaminated it. Troy had given him friendship unlike anyone else in the world ever had, and he repaid that by dreaming about them tearing each other’s clothes off. He detached himself from Troy as gently as possible and checked the time; 7 am. Annie would be up before too long. He looked at Troy, who was still fast asleep, and hated that as bad as he felt about the dream all the desire from it was still left over. Abed went directly to the shower in an effort to wash the shame off himself, and sat on the ground with the water running down his back until Annie came knocking at the door.  


…  


It was official, Troy hated himself.  


Sure, Abed had his days sometimes, where he wouldn’t get out of bed and only gave one-word answers to all your questions and didn’t really look anyone in the eye. It always hurt Troy to see him like that, mostly because nothing he did ever seemed to help, but then the next day, he’d just be Abed again and everything was okay. They were going on four days like that now though, and Troy was starting to feel like he was drifting off to sea with no one to anchor him. He still wasn’t entirely sure when, or what gave it away, but he figures Abed must’ve realized between all the cuddling and long glances that Troy liked him a little too much (more like way too much but at this point what did it even matter?). He couldn’t figure out what else had changed that would send Abed into seclusion like this.  


Troy has been fooling himself anyways, it wasn’t like he hadn’t known all along that Abed liked girls. He’d always been fairly open talking to Troy about cute girls in their classes or on whatever show they were watching. He even knew Abed’s type: usually girls on the shorter side, with glasses, ones that wore soft sweaters and lip gloss. He liked shiny hair and miniskirts and painted nails and when they wore the color purple. Troy liked all these things too, which made them easy to talk about. Troy would just conveniently leave out that he also liked guys’ arms in short sleeve shirts, or the way they run their hands through their hair, or when their shirt rides up while they’re stretching and you can see a bit of skin. He found it intriguing when a guy was kind of artistic too, good at painting or playing an instrument or something, and he thought it was cute when they bit their nails. He knew Abed probably wouldn’t have judged him for any of that, but it was a lot easier to just talk about girls and leave the rest of it unmentioned.  


The real problem, Troy figured, was not going to be that he likes guys to anyone but Shirley and maybe Pierce. It was that he liked Abed specifically. With Abed, it was like all those things he had found attractive before were irresistible now. He stared when it got hot and Abed took his sweatshirt off, and god forbid he reached for something in the kitchen cabinets and Troy caught a glimpse of hipbone. He hadn’t stopped being attracted to Abed, but he knew he would take those feelings, cut them up into a million little pieces, and bury the pieces all over the planet so they could never re-materialize, if it meant Abed could just be Abed again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you're reading this, thank you!! My heart goes out to you all and I hope you're doing well in these crazy times. Feel free to find me on tumblr, I'm bestfriendsweekly and always looking for community friends :)


	4. Glitter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here it is! I has only taken me absolutely forever but I have finally given this thing some closure. I am so sorry it took this long but for some reason I could not get it right. This is the first story (fic or otherwise) I have ever finished in my whole darn life so I'm just really happy to be sharing it! If you have read this whole thing I am so so grateful for you :)

Annie was a little nervous to open the front door to the apartment. Abed never showed up to class and she’d been staring at Troy for so long during the lecture that he asked if he had something on his face. She just couldn’t stop thinking about all of it. It wasn’t that it was surprising honestly, in fact it seemed like it made too much sense. She thought about Troy’s face when she saw Abed asleep on him the other night, how he’d seemed so content with Abed curled up in his lap. Of course Troy loved Abed. Abed was the one who had changed him from the one-dimensional jock she’d had a childish crush on in high school to the real, loving guy she was proud to call her friend.

She figured based on how things were now that Abed hadn’t felt the same.

When she walked into the apartment, Troy was sitting on the couch with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. He waved at Annie when she walked in. She pointed to the blanket fort and mouthed “Abed?”, at him with wide eyes. He motioned her over and she leaned in.

“He’s still in his bed,” Troy said, stealing a glance towards the closed curtains.

“Are you okay, Troy?”

“I’m fine, just worried about Abed,” He said, but his voice was breaking and little and Annie was close enough to see how watery his eyes were.

“Me too,” She said.

Annie didn’t say anything else, mostly because it seemed like asking Troy anything else was only going to bring him to real tears. With neither of them talking, the only noise in the apartment was the faint sound of Abed’s fingers hitting his laptop keys. Annie turned the TV on just to fill the silence between her and Troy, and sat her notebook on her lap to work. Every once in a while she’d glance at Troy, and the look on his face just made her want to cry. He was wearing the red sweatshirt again, taking tiny bites of his sandwich and watching cartoon network blankly. She tried to think of what could’ve happened, what was said that would leave Troy as a shell of himself and Abed disappeared entirely.

Troy smiled at Annie when he got up to wash his plate, but she could tell it was forced. He went into the bathroom to shower.

Annie went back to her schoolwork, and didn’t even notice Abed had left the blanket fort till she heard the kitchen cabinets opening. She turned around and saw Abed, hit headphones still on, pulling the bread out of the drawer and making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for himself. When she met his eyes he gave her a small wave and went back to scraping the last of the peanut butter out of the jar.  
She wanted to go up to him, ask him what Troy had said and what he said back, maybe take him into the dreamatorium and set up some scenario that she could use to analyze his emotions. Annie was still thinking about how to go about talking to Abed when he disappeared back into the blanket fort, where he stayed for the rest of the night.

STUDY ROOM, FRIDAY AFTERNOON

Annie checked the time on the pink digital watch she only wore to track other people’s lateness. “They should be here by now, I thought they knew it was an emergency!”

“I can’t wait to see what you’ve decided qualifies as an emergency this time,” Jeff says without looking up from his phone screen.

“Jeff this is important, you’re going to need to be present,” Britta says back, trying to grab the phone out of his hands but Jeff pulls it out of reach.

“Alright someone tell me what the hell is going on and why I’m missing my friend’s level 6 ascension ceremony for this,” Pierce says angrily.

“Pierce we all know you aren’t missing shit because you don’t have any friends outside this room,” Jeff shot back.

No one said anything else until Troy walked through the door.

“Where’s Abed?” Shirley asked.

“Abed’s not coming,” Troy said as he sat down.

“He needs to be here!” Britta yells.

“Okay, jeez, he told me he wanted to stay home, what’s the big deal?”

“That’s the million dollar question right now, Troy,” Jeff says, still disinterested.

“Well we can’t start the meeting until Abed gets here,” Annie said sternly.

“He’s not gonna show,” Jeff says back.

“He has to,” Britta says.

“Can you two just cut the crap and tell us what in the Lord’s name you’ve gathered us on a Friday afternoon for?” Shirley says, getting frustrated.

“Yeah I’m really going to leave if you don’t tell me why I’m here,” Pierce says, already starting to gather up his stuff.

The group dissolves into yelling back and forth across the table until Annie stands up out of her chair.

“We all need to be here because Troy’s in love with Abed and he broke his heart okay?!” She yells.

Everyone falls silent and turns to Troy.

“In love?” Shirley says, “are we sure about that?”

“I don’t even know what love is!” Troy cries, looking over at Abed’s empty seat.

“It’s like when they’re around they’re all you look at and when they aren’t they’re all you think about and kissing them tastes like glitter—” Annie starts.

“Yeah?! Well in my experience glitter usually just tastes like really small pieces of plastic!”

“Okay well I’ve never actually eaten glitter, Troy, it’s more about how they make you feel,”

“Troy, ignore all that bullcrap, if you think you love someone just marry them and hope it works out,” Pierce says.

“Pierce that is terrible advice,” Shirley says. “Especially when we are not talking about any type of church approved marriage here,”

Troy put his head down on the table and threw his arms over it.

“Shirley can we leave your religion bullshit out of this?” Jeff glares at her from across the table, and she closes her mouth.

They listen to Troy’s soft sobs into the tabletop for another minute.

“Troy, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to-” Annie starts.

“Shut up Annie, you’ve done enough,” Britta says.

“Oh and wanna explain how you Britta’d this one for me?!” Troy picks his head up a little and yells through his tears. “I knew I shouldn’t have told you that!”

“It’s not my fault Annie can’t keep her nose out of these things!” Britta yelled across the table.

“You’re just saying that to avoid the fact that you were the one who slipped up and told me in the first place! I live with them, how the hell am I supposed to stay out of it?!” Annie said, slamming her hands on the table. “And you agreed to this meeting, Britta, don’t start trying to shift the blame here,”

“Yeah well— well Jeff obviously knows something he’s not telling us!” Britta said, turning from Annie and pointing a finger at him.

“What could I possibly know?” Jeff said, leaning back in his chair.

“You have been a little too quiet through all of this,” Shirley says.

“All I know is that Troy and Abed should probably have worked this out themselves,”

“Well clearly that didn’t work,” Annie says back. “Troy told Abed and have you seen much of him since? Because I sure haven’t!”

“What the hell are you talking about now Annie? I wanted to talk to Abed but I never even had the chance before he went quiet. I think he figured it out himself,”

“I don’t think Ay-bed can figure anything out for himself, his social skills aren’t exactly streets ahead,” Pierce says, satisfied with himself as long as he can get a few words in.

Maybe he’s said it in the most insulting way possible, but Troy realized Pierce might actually be kind of right. Troy had assumed Abed had figured it all out on his own, and sure, Abed was crazy smart, and he noticed a lot, but putting a whole puzzle of emotion together based on eye contact wasn’t exactly an Abed thing to do, was it?

“Hold on a second,” Troy says, standing up as well. “If I didn’t tell Abed, and he didn’t figure it out on his own, which one of you told him?” He’s pointing back and forth between Britta and Annie, looking into their eyes for guilt.

“Britta only told me yesterday!” Annie says defensively.

“And I swear I didn’t say a word to him! I just wanted you to,” Britta adds.

“So if you guys didn’t tell him, why isn’t he talking to me?!” Troy yells, and his tears restart.

Jeff thinks of the story Abed wrote, with the artist who was so confused and lost in his own feelings that he couldn’t see anything clearly. He thought about the character Abed had written for Troy, one that accepted him for who he was, who took him on dates and slept in bed with him and occasionally made out with him in picturesque settings.

He takes his phone out and texts Abed.

_**Get your ass to the study room. Now.** _

_**I don’t think that’s a good idea.** _

_**That wasn’t a suggestion. If you aren’t here in the next ten minutes I’m going to go get you and drag you here myself.** _

…

Abed read the texts from Jeff a few times. He really did not want to face the entire study group right now but he figured if he didn’t it was just going to drag all of this out even longer, and honestly Abed was tired. He was tired of feeling like any interaction with Troy was going to kill him. He was tired of avoiding everybody else. Being alone was bearable for the first day or two, but now it seemed like it was just as draining as actually facing everyone. He’d have to just show up and be honest. It would be embarrassing, and probably lead to him losing his friends, but not going was just delaying the inevitable.

He didn’t like to listen to anyone, but he usually made an exception for Jeff. Abed appreciated the fact that he was their leader, because he recognized that a lot of the time they needed one. After having a crack at it himself through a chicken finger empire, Abed knew he wasn’t cut out for the job, and that it wasn’t as easy as the mafia movies made it look. Most importantly, Jeff had read that script. He knew what no one else did, and Abed trusted him with that. Plus there were some things Abed knew about Jeff’s history with phone sex hotlines that made for pretty good leverage if Jeff was really going to humiliate him.

He went to grab his bag where it was hanging on the kitchen chair, but stopped when he saw Troy’s red sweatshirt folded neatly on the table next to it. Abed picked it up and considered it for a moment before taking off the cardigan he’d been wearing and pulling on the crewneck. It smelled like Troy’s deodorant and hung a lot looser on his frame than it did Troy’s. Abed didn’t really think red was his color, either, it had always suited Troy a lot better. He wasn’t sure if Troy had meant it that way, or if it was just wishful thinking, but the sweatshirt seemed like a sign. A sign that maybe things would be alright.

…

They didn’t even notice that Abed had walked into the room until he closed the door behind him. Half of them were standing up out of their chairs, everyone was yelling, and Troy was crying.

“I wish I could be a better friend to him, you know?” Troy choked out.

“Troy?”

“Abed?” He said, looking up with wide eyes, tears still rolling down his cheeks.

“I don’t really understand what’s going on here,” Abed said, slowly looking over each of the study groups members faces. No one said a word until Jeff stood up, leaning forward with his hands splayed across the tabletop.

“I guess I’ll have to explain it to you all. These two idiots got themselves all mixed up in some weird cycle of shame and fear and all that crap and were too blind to realize they’ve both been in love with each other the entire time.”

“Jeff, why didn’t you say that,” Britta checked the time. “three hours ago?”

“Because I was hoping they could work it out themselves. Abed had told me that in confidence and I wasn’t going to share it at all, but they were clearly a lost cause without my help,”

“Abed, is that true? You’re really in love with Troy?” Annie asked tentatively.

“Of course I am. How could I not be in love with Troy? I mean just look at him,”

The rest of the group looked at Troy, who wiped his tear, grinned and gave a sheepish wave. They all nodded in agreement.

“Wait so are you… not straight?” Troy asked, narrowing his eyes a little.

“No, I’m bi, always have been. But we it never came up and I couldn’t figure out a good way to tell you all,” Abed said.

“I guess now is as good a time as any to tell you I dated a guy in high school,”

Annie gasped. “Ohmygod Troy who?! Did I know him?”

“Maybe you did, I dunno. His name was Lee,”

“The art honor society kid?”

“That’s the one,”

“Troy he was cute!” Annie said, blushing a little, “tons of girls liked him,”

“Well he didn’t like them,” Troy said back, and it sounded a little harsher than he’d meant it.

“Oh actually, I knew about that.” Abed shrugged.

“What the hell Abed, how?”

“A friend of his from your high school is in the City College A.V. club. She’s seen all of our movies together and stuff. One time she asked me if we were dating and I told her you were straight. She said ‘I’m not so sure about that’, then she told me about Lee. It really explained this drawing that I found in the apartment,” Abed finished, pulling a piece of paper out from his messenger bag and unfolding it to reveal pencil sketch of Troy’s face.

“I thought I lost that!” Troy said.

“I’m sorry. I just kept it because I like it a lot.”

“Well I guess if were… doing this, whatever this is, you can hold onto it,”

“I’d like that,” Abed said, carefully folding it back up along the creases and putting it in the pocket of his bag.

“I’m sorry I’ve been avoiding you all,” Abed said. “I know it worries you guys, but I was scared of the way I felt about Troy, and the way it might affect the rest of the group. Thanks for keeping my secret though, Jeff, and for telling me to come here,”

“I was honored to,” Jeff said, only half sarcastically.

“Okay so can I go home? Did we get all this figured out?” Pierce asked.

“Yes Pierce, you can leave,”

“Congratulations on being gay together, I guess,”

“Thanks, I think?” Troy said back.

“Okay well I think I’m going to go light a candle for you guys. You don’t need to find Jesus, though that’d be nice. Just treat each other right, okay?”

Troy got up and pulled Shirley into a tight hug. “Thank you,” he whispered.

“I’m so sorry I told Annie, Troy. I never should have let it slip,”

“It’s okay, I’m no good at keeping secrets either, and I think it all turned out alright in the end,” Troy smiled.

“We’ll leave you guys be for a bit, okay?” Annie said, “I’ll go home and make you guys dinner as an apology for trying to stage a half-witted intervention,”

Abed looked at her, raised his eyebrows and cocked his head a little.

“Yes, I’ll make buttered noodles,”

“Okay, you’re forgiven Annie,”

Eventually all the rest of the study group left, Britta closing the door behind them and giving Troy a knowing smirk. They sat next to each other on the edge of the table, legs dangling off the side. Troy looked Abed up and down, trying to absorb all the weird revelations today had brought.

“Wait a second, why did you go silent, exactly? I’m still kind of lost here,” Troy said.

Abed looked at him, then at his chest, then at the ground.

“I might have had a… sex dream about you. While I was sleeping in your lap,”

Troy laughed a little. “You avoided everyone for five days over a dream?”

“It seemed really terrible at the time, but now it just feels kind of dumb. Jeff was right, we are idiots,” Abed said.

“You wore the sweatshirt though,” Troy grinned, running his hand along the length of Abed’s arm. “I was hoping you would. You said you wanted to steal it, and you seemed so sad I thought maybe it would comfort you,”

“I was so scared to come over here, but I saw it on the table and it made me think everything was going to be okay,” Abed said, smiling. “Can I kiss you?”

Troy looked Abed in the eyes. “Definitely,”

Just like that Abed’s lips were on his, one hand in his hair and the other balancing on his thigh. Troy almost wanted to open his eyes just to confirm this was real life, that this was actually Abed kissing him. He worked his tongue into Abed’s mouth, and suddenly Abed was biting at his lip. He took a sharp breath in at this, and kept going until he was so out of breath he thought he might pass out.

“You really do taste like glitter,” He gasped.

“Glitter?” Abed asked. "Isn't glitter really just plastic?"

Troy started to laugh, but he was cut off by Abed leaning in for another kiss, and he let himself get lost in it. He had no clue how much time had passed, but when they stopped the second time Abed was panting a little.

“Wanna head home?” Troy asked, “Annie’s probably done with dinner by now,”

“Sounds good,”

Troy reached his hand out, a little nervous, and Abed laced his fingers into it and smiled. Feeling a little bolder, Troy got up on his toes and kissed Abed on the cheek. Abed beamed down at him, and Troy saw a beautiful kind of brightness in his face. It was the kind of face he could look at forever.

"Are there any balconies around here?" Abed asked.

"I bet we can find one, why?"

"Nothing, there's just this script I was thinking we could film this weekend,"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jeez if you have gotten all the way to the end of this just know I love you!! And I hope you're doing well and staying safe and watching lots of community!

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading! Any feedback would make my day :) Just got back on tumblr as bestfriendsweekly so you can find me and give me some fic prompts there, talk about community at great length, or just observe me simping for Danny Pudi 24/7.


End file.
